


Judy Lee and the Responsibility of Us

by EsseR3xinaLives



Series: The Moments we Make [2]
Category: ITZY (Band)
Genre: Because I said I'd do this, Current Events, Podcast, Societal Critiques, Societal Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-21 10:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30020574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EsseR3xinaLives/pseuds/EsseR3xinaLives
Summary: We live in a society....Well, yes, that much is obvious, but maybe what we need to do is dig a bit deeper.What are the reasons for us living in a society?  What does it mean to us that we live in a society?  How does living in a society affect people?  What obligations does living in a society present to us?I believe I am not alone in believing that our society has a lot of spaces where it needs to grow.  Where it needs to increase it's understanding of the livelihoods it creates and hold itself accountable for the damages it presents.  But how does one hold a society accountable?The truth is 'one' doesn't, which is why I've started this podcast to discuss the responsibility of 'us.'[This is Chaeryoung's podcast based from my fic The Time of Our Lives.  There is no particular order to these fics, simply what I find fascinating and feel like discussing, though I welcome others to also comment on things they would like to see in here.  Updates will be irregular though I do hope I can post at least one chapter once a month.]
Series: The Moments we Make [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208315
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Introduction: Welcome to Judy Lee and the Responsibility of Us

Greetings all and welcome to the first installation of _Judy Lee and the Responsibility of Us_. My goal for this podcast is to explore and discuss topics that are not easily accessible or readily taught within our modern day society.

As I have grown up in my short life I have come to find that there are particular topics that K-12 schools actively evade discussing. These topics almost always relate to human rights topics. For instance, why is it that history teachers go into such depth on the wars America fought between both countries and states, but glances over the battles fought by oppressed minorities not _against_ the country, but against the policies that were actively subjugating them? Why is it that sex education is largely focused on ways to prevent pregnancy when sexual relations are far more varied than vaginal intercourse? Why is it that Language Arts courses assign reading material where the amount of literature both written by and about white men incredibly overshadows any other kind of literature, if such literature is even presented? These gaps leave many individuals isolated, where in order to learn about their histories, their bodies, and their very modes of experiences they must seek out other means which, in the past, was usually one's parents. This, however, presents new issues. Not everyone has family members who are in a position to teach their children about their bodies, cultures and identities and not even if a person has a member in the family that knows or understands a child's identity, not everyone has the time to devote to teaching their children about who they are. This leads to the importance of one of the most incredible inventions of our time: the internet. 

Now, the internet has been around for a few decades now. Once it became commercialized to be part of the average household in the 90's it quickly transformed to become a central component of our lives to provide us, ways to communicate with distant others, access to resources and most of all, information. This access to unlimited information could be perceived as being able to supplement the information that America's current education system fails to provide. Now, individuals have the opportunity to gain information on whatever they wish and it's all at their fingertips. The education problem is solved!

Except… it isn't.

First of all, just because we now have access to the internet doesn't _necessarily_ mean that now all people have access to whatever information they desire. This is evident for two specific reasons. First, using the internet requires some education in and of itself, and finding specific information often requires the use of specific terms in order to find it. This information is incredibly difficult to find for someone who may only have a vague understanding of what they are trying to find and are likely to get inundated with information that is either not relevant or even provides false information on the topic the individual is trying to learn about. The second reason is that not everything on the internet is actually accessible. There are internet databases with hundreds of thousands to millions of articles, archives, periodicals and essays that describe research done, histories lived, and experiences discussed that require fines to be paid in order to have access to such knowledge. Of course, one can gain access to these databases either through paying the fines or going to a university that grants students access to these spaces. In essence, however, the internet does not so much counteract issues of elitism in education, but continues to perpetuate it, where knowledge can only be accessed to the privileged few either with someone who can help them find what they're searching for or the money and resources to access the very articles that validate their existence. Because of this, much of the very information that marginalized or oppressed individuals may seek is inaccessible, leaving this information to stay in the hands of the privileged few who may either see this information as novel trivia about the lives lived by people different from themselves, or others who seek these articles to address systemic issues only to become disheartened that despite all the research, society has made little to no efforts to change.

For this reason, I wanted to create this podcast. The internet has the opportunity to provide so much to the world, including the opportunity to give marginalized communities a chance to find their history and contributions to society, but this opportunity has continued to be stilted for the sake of a perpetuated elitism. This podcast is made to, even if just in a small way, counteract that. To give a space to where issues that matter can be discussed. To discuss the lives that have been shaped by society's ongoing oppressions and to discuss the ways people have fought against those institutions. To give a space where the issues that affect people's lives can be discussed and legitimated as issues our society has failed to prevent as well as has failed to respond to.

The goal of this podcast, is to discuss what we need to do to become a better 'us.'

Now, to finish this segment, I wish to state a disclaimer. I _do not_ claim that I have all the answers. That would be completely counterintuitive to the entire purpose of this project. In this podcast I will discuss my own ideas and theories, however all are welcome to disagree because homogeneity can never lead to a better society. The attempt to perpetuate a homogenous society is what created all forms of oppression in America to begin with. Dissenting opinions will be welcomed and accepted _however_ that does not mean that this platform legitimizes supremacist and patriarchal ideas. Any kind of hate runs completely counter to the purpose of this podcast and will not be tolerated. That being said, I cannot claim to have all the answers, nor will I claim to. Instead I ask that you provide feedback where you believe my ideas may be inaccurate or incomplete and I will take the measures necessary to rectify my argument.

Finally, many of my segments will largely be based around things I may be reading or focusing on, however, I welcome everyone to request topics that are relevant to you. My goal in this, after all, was to touch on topics that may not be readily accessible and I will do what I can to make time for the topics you request as you request them.

That being said, I thank you all for joining me in my first installation of Judy Lee and the Responsibility of Us. I will try to upload a new episode every third Friday of the month, though if current events arise that individuals would like to discuss I am more than happy to make an exception.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed the first episode and I hope to hear from you all soon.


	2. But is it a...: The Georgia Spa Shooting and Why we Need to Address it as a Hate Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter goes into the shootings that occured on March 16 where a white man killed 8 individuals while severely injuring a nineth as well as what I believe the discussions around this incident lack as far as how racial and gender identities played into this event.

Hello all and welcome back to my channel. Today I'm going to be touching on a topic that I was hoping I would not have to touch on so soon, but with current events there is no possible way I can ignore it. This is the racism faced by Asians and Asian-Americans in the United States.

As many of you may have heard, there was a tragic shooting that occured on Tuesday March 16 where a white man travelled to three different spas and shot at the patrons and workers there. This shooting led to the deaths of eight people, six of whom were Asian women, and a nineth person was fatally wounded. The man who committed the shooting was arrested on his way to Florida where it was suspected he was going to continue his assaults. When arrested by authorities, he stated that his actions were not racially charged. Instead he stated that he has a history of struggling with a sex addiction and the spas were a 'trigger,' as it were, to purchase a gun and begin his killing spree.

Now, I don't want to go further into this man's apparent sex addiction, the "bad day" he apparently had or the further background on this man as being a "Lover of God." There's a CNN article that already covers his back story if you want to learn more about that. Instead, I am going to focus on how white America has blatantly undermined the severity of the pain he has inflicted on the single surviving victim of the shooting, of the families of the victims he assaulted and on the Asian community as a whole. It undermines the severity of the crimes committed and, in doing that, it undermines the lives of the people who were killed, injured and affected by his decision to commit mass homicide. It does this by perpetuating a narrative that this perpetrator is an individual who needs and is deserving of empathy at the expense of the lives he slaughtered. They weren't victims in this narrative. Instead, they were simply this man's means of making a cry for help and that the fact that the majority of these victims were Asian women was just an unfortunate side effect.

This, unfortunately, isn't anything new. Racism has deep roots in American culture, to the genocide of the indigenous people that lived here before  white colonization, to the mass abductions and enslavement of black people. To the mass exploitation and deportation of hispanic people to the economic exploitation of Asians, both within the country as well as abroad.

The list goes on, but this podcast isn't about all the ways America has exploited, oppressed and abused any and all populations that they deemed "not-white." Those need their own discussions. And this installation needs to remain focused on the issue at hand. This is about the hate crime that America claims  _ may not _ be one. This is about the invalidation of the racism that impacts Asian-American lives, a racism that has only grown worse with the global pandemic and with the Trump Administration's promotion of a racist rhetoric that has empowered white supremacists to take action against any and every non-white entity they desire.

_Maybe_ that's why it's, for some reason, debatable whether it is a hate crime when a man walks into a spa shouting "I'll kill all the Asians" as he targeted _Asian_ run businesses to shoot into. _Maybe_ that's why we believe that same man's sex addiction can, smehow, justify his actions as not being motivated to target gender when seven of his eight murder victims were _women_. _Maybe_ that's why we don't consider it a hate crime because a hate crime is based _either_ on someone's race _or_ someone's gender, but _Asian women_ are both racial _and_ gender minorities, making his motivations "unclear." _Maybe_ that's why we can't understand whether this was a hate crime or not until we _determine_ if these spa workers were also sex workers, as if that would  _ somehow _ _justify_ the deaths of these homicide victims! But maybe, the main reason we can't determine if this is a hate crime or not is because, in America, violence against women and people of color isn't hate: it's  _ normal _ .

Nothing could have spoken to how normal this kind of violence is in America more than Sheriff Baker's comment that Tuesday was "a really bad day for him and this is what he did."

_ Really?! _ Tuesday was just a "bad day" for this man so he "just did this thing?!" Why can't you say what he did?! Why can't you say, "he had a really bad day so he _open fired into three spas_ _?! _ " Why can't you say that, "he was struggling with a sex addiction so he  _ killed eight people?!" _ Why can't you just say what it is that this man did?! Why can't you just  _ accept _ that what this man did was  _ murder?! _

And the reason is because this is just what a "bad day" for a white man looks like. That this man was struggling so he "did this thing" because  _ that's just what white men do. _ His comments tie into the facets of white supremacy, patriarchy and toxic masculinity where what a white man can do,  _ and can be empathized with for doing _ , is tied into perpetuating violence against women of color because  _ that's just how white men cope with a bad day. _

America needs to hold itself accountable for ignoring these crimes for what they are. They are hate crimes. You cannot convince the Asian-American community that this is not a hate crime when six of the eight homicide victims are of Asian descent. You cannot convince  _ me _ that this isn't a hate crime when I share a Korean ethnicity with four of the eight victims that were murdered in this tragedy. And the reason you cannot convince me or any other Asian-American that this isn't a hate crime isn't because we are "too subjective" that we cannot look at the crime "factually." The reason you cannot convince us this is not a hate crime is because a hate crime can only be such if it is felt by the community that was targeted.

And we feel it.

You cannot convince me that because Long says he's not racist means this attack wasn't racially charged. Psychologists have developed tests that  _ show _ that biases that inform racist assaults are as much  _ subconscious _ as they are conscious. You cannot convince me that this wasn't racially charged because he has a sex addiction. Asian women experience both sexism and racism and the fact that the majority of women killed in this assault were Asian shows the prevalence of that intersection in informing this assault. You cannot convince me that this crime is not racially charged, because you have not shown me or the Asian-American community that our voices have been heard. That our pain is felt. That our feelings around this incident matter, whether they be the close friends and relatives of the victims or the individuals who share in their struggle of fighting against the anti-Asian sentiment that has intensified in America in the past year. You have not heard out voices, until you reckon with the pain we feel in the wake of these attacks, the fear we have had to face in the wake of growing violence against Asian-Americans, and the ways these institutions instill these responses in other minorities in similar incidents, then you will never understand what a hate crime truly is.

A hate crime is a crime that targets a specific demographic.

A hate crime is a crime where victimhood is felt  _ within that demographic _ .

A hate crime is a stark reminder that the lives of any oppressed minority will never be as valued as the life of a white male.

When someone says that a white man committing violence against racial and gender minorities is just someone having a "bad day" it sends a very clear message. That message is one: white men committing violence is  _ normal _ and two: that the victims of white male violence are just an unfortunate side effect of the violence men commit.

And so, to end this, I want to finish by saying that this  _ is not _ acceptable. It is  _ not _ acceptable that Long decided to "cope" with his "bad day" by killing eight people and sending a ninth into intensive care. It is  _ not _ acceptable that the families and friends of Yong A. Yue, of Suncha Kim, of Hyun J. Grant, of Soon C. Park, of Dayou Feng, of Xiaojie Tan, of Paul Andre Michels and of Delaina Yaun have to prepare funerals for their loved ones as they now have to contend with the financial burdens of paying for those funeral services while they contend with the emotional grief and long-term trauma that comes from losing a loved one to someone's senseless violence. It is  _ not _ acceptable that Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz was fatally wounded and is now in intensive care where his family has to contend with the fear of if he'll survive, as well as contend with the trauma both he and they will have to contend with in the aftermath of this tragedy.

_ None of this is acceptable! _ I don't care what the stats say about how prevalent racism against Asians. I already know that this hate and oppression is  _ normal _ because I have to live with it everyday! Because this is something that the nearly 30 million Asian-Americans in the United States have to live with every day! And I know this  _ continues _ to be normalized because we continue to look for evidence in the form of stats and numbers to determine whether hate and violence against Asian-Americans, as well as other racial minorities, is actually something that can be posed as a problem before saying "but there are too many confounding factors so... we can't say." Our lives aren't just the numbers you post on a graph to determine if you're meeting your diversity quota in your business or a curious debate about how prevalent the role racism _may affect_ the likelihood of a person getting assaulted. These are our  _ lives! _ It is  _ not _ normal for anyone to have to live in fear because their identity makes them a target. It is  _ not _ normal for people to feel numbed at the deaths of people in their own community because feeling empathy for the victims and contending with our own potential of victimhood is too psychologically damaging. It is _not_ normal for racial and ethnic minorities to feel like the only they will be be safe is if they own a gun.

_ This _ is not normal.

And America needs to stop pretending that it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I already said I'm not Asian. I was so scared to post this because I didn't want to be seen as appropriating an Asian girl's voice to address racial issues that will never affect me in the same way they will affect every racial and ethnic identity that America finds a way to commodify. And, because of this dissonance, I felt the need to say this:
> 
> I am so sorry.
> 
> I am sorry that I am part of a racial group that, for centuries, has normalized and glorified the violence, genocide and enslavement that white colonizers decided to make a central part of American culture. I am sorry that I am part of a racial group that believes that my whiteness should guarantee me economic success and that, in promoting this idea, the racial group I am a part of justifies the mass deportation of immigrants and murder of black individuals that they had actively brought over as slave labor. I am so sorry that I am a part of a group that normalizes the violence committed against you. I may not have created this system, but it would be ignorance to ignore the fact that I am still a part of it, that I actually benefit from it, and I am so sorry that white people have used your sweat, your tears, and so very much of your blood so that they can enjoy a life of freedom that comes at the cost of your lives. It is not acceptable that white Americans have used the bodies of racial and ethnic minorities to promote it's economic success and it is not acceptable that white Americans don't take accoutnability for the genocide, massacres and violence they have instilled in the racial minorities who both live within the United States as well as who live under the influence of white colonization abroad.
> 
> Lastly, I want to say I am sorry for all the pain, the fear, the anger, the despair and the numbness that this incident caused the Asian-American community to feel. For those of you who are impacted by this event I want you to know that your pain is real, your anger is real, that any and all feelings you may have experienced that I have not listed here but were a response to this event are all very real. My heart goes out to you, as well as the victims' loved ones and the sole survivor of this attack and that I will do everything I can to speak out against these oppressive systems, starting with this fanfiction.
> 
> Here are the resources I looked at while writing this fic. I will warn you that the CNN ones were a little difficult for me because they disproportionately address the offenders struggles while glancing over the effects this had on the victims and their families which I believe leads to an over-empathization with the offender. My love and support go to the friends and loved ones of Dayou Feng, Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Soon C. Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim and Yong A. Yue. I am sincerely sorry for your losses. Also, to the friends and loved ones of Elcias hernandez-Ortiz I am sorry for the grief and anxiety you must be enduring as we continue to hope for his recovery in intensive care. The pain and suffering you all are facing is real and white America needs to hold itself accountable for the harms they have caused you.
> 
> Thank you all for bearing with me as I addressed this harrowing incident and please let me know if there is anything more I can do to be of support.
> 
> Best,  
> EsseR3xinaLives
> 
> Resources:
> 
> https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-sheriff-s-official-under-fire-remarks-spa-shootings-anti-n1261359
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56218684
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/us/metro-atlanta-shootings-wednesday/index.html
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/us/atlanta-spa-shootings-victims/index.html
> 
> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/03/18/atlanta-victims-were-killed-white-violence-racism-many-insist/4751240001/
> 
> https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-asks-why-should-we-believe-claims-georgia-shooter-isnt-racist-video/

**Author's Note:**

> So, I want to make something INCREDIBLY clear. I am not Asian. I do not identify as a woman. I have very little identities in common with Lee Chaeryoung as I have fictionalized her in this series and even less in common with Lee Chaeryoung herself. I am a white, genderqueer, asexual lesbian, which means that the way I experience things like oppression and discrimination in society are different from what others, whether they be racial minorities, cis-women or other sexual minorities, experience. I am NOT speaking through this Chaeryoung to hide who I am as a person, but to address reall issues that we face, how those affect people who are minorities since a huge part of Time of Our Lives is about diversity and acceptance, and how those issues don't just affect fictionalized characters that get written as gay or genderfluid to add some more nuanced plot points, but that these are lived experiences that people contend with and that have a real effect on their lives. That being said, you are free to ask for clarification on what I've written since this is written in Chaeryoung's voice which is very much influenced as an upper-class elite who although speaks out against elitism also has internalized biases of what it means to discuss these issues that she contends with.
> 
> I do hope to also have discussions on how racism is a large part of our society. As someone who is white, I ask for patience, understanding and criticism, that if I do or say something that is damaging that I am given the chance to hold myself accountable and make amends. I do not claim to have all the answer, I don't even know if we have all the questions that we need to have answers for, but that's a large reason why I feel like creating this fic is important. Here we can delve into things that affect our lives and where we see potential solutions to those issues. We live in a society that has done so much damage to so many people, but hopefully, we can find a way to come together to discuss what those issues are and what we need from each other to resolve those issues. After all, if a society is a collection of people organized into a community, then it will take all of us to make the changes necessary to make society a welcoming space for all.


End file.
